Interesting Triumph artwork at Shopping Centre

[Colin Lindsay]

Saturday morning... "Classic Car Show" at The Boulevard, Banbridge. I called up at 10am in the BMW, not a classic but drier than the Herald, only to see two oiks in lowered moderns with bean-tin exhausts doing doughnuts in the carpark. That was it. I stayed until 12.00 noon, coffee and a newspaper, and when nothing else appeared went home again. Perhaps it was cancelled, perhaps all those moderns in the car park really were the 'Classic' show. Who knows?

(Incidentally there's another next Saturday at a local church; £10 for cars, public get in free. I pay to display my car but others get in free to see them? Work that one out. They'll make Springsteen pay to perform, next.)

However whilst idly wandering the shops I had a look at some of the artwork they use to cover empty units. Presumably by a local Ulster artist, but some of the detail was telling if very stylised. I wonder what his connection / interest is?

   

   

 

 

[Steve P]

I think the definition of Classic car is definitely changing, when I see a Tesla at one I will give up.

S

[Ian Foster]

2 hours ago, Steve P said:

when I see a Tesla at one I will give up

They used one as a course car when we went to Chateau Impney!

[andybeau]

4 hours ago, Steve P said:

I think the definition of Classic car is definitely changing, when I see a Tesla at one I will give up.

S

When the TSSC was set up in 1977, the oldest Herald was less than twenty years old.

I always thought twenty years was the definition of a classic car originally.

Is it just with age that twenty years doesn't seem that old?

[Colin Lindsay]

Call it a hankering for a particular era, if you like. I remember in the 1970s going to shows full of cars from the 1950s and 1960s, models I remembered as a child. Where are they now? No-one in those days would have dreamed of turning up in a modern car and claiming it as a classic. I can't believe there's been a huge jump from 1950s or 1960s cars - which even then were all around ten to twenty years old and can't all have been scrapped since - missing out the 1970s and 1980s, and even the 1990s to a large extent and going straight to 2010 or the 2020s. It's like going to a 1950s Band Show and playing modern music - it's music, people like it, so why shouldn't it be allowed? - while those who really want the genuine article from their preferred era are left feeling let down and excluded among cars that are just everyday models in their hundreds. 

[Peter Truman]

Unlike your classics which have to be 40 years old to get free rego we here can put our cars on Club Permit  at 25 years old, it’s not a registration but a permit to use the car for up to 45 or 90 days per annum for personnel use at the cost of around $80 for 45 days and Proportionally more for 90 days. You have to be a member of a govt registered car club to get a permit and the club usually insist on a degree of club participation to be approved the permit which is then issued by the govt registration authority 

So you could say we classify a car as classic at 25 years

[Colin Lindsay]

1 hour ago, Peter Truman said:

So you could say we classify a car as classic at 25 years

25 years I can live with - my Z3 is 25, for example - but 25 minutes is stretching things a bit....

[dougbgt6]

My brother's 2001 Vauxhall Astra will be a classic in 2 years time then?  

Doug

[Peter Truman]

Here's part of the Club Permit Applic, there's all up 3 pages which includes the specific authorised  car clubs authorisation the Permit is renewed annually and the club has to endorse the renewal that you are still a club member.

It actually doesn't say it's a classic if older than 25 years BUT specifies classics & historics post 1930 and older than 25 years!

[Colin Lindsay]

Some of my local shows used to have a pre-1980 clause, and that was later amended to pre-1990, but then we had the serial complainers along the lines of "my model came out in 1988 but my actual car was made in 1992 and it's not fair that I'm excluded" which THEN became modified to 'my car first appeared in 1971 and they're still using the name so my 1995 model is excluded and it's not fair' and finally to the 'I'm a member of the Owner's Club and we have a stand so I can bring my 2023 car as I'm a Club member' so once again the real 'Classics' became a minority at some shows. When shows have limited spaces for entrants, and you see very old cars from the 40s, 50s and 60s being turned away because the field is full of 'Present Day' moderns, there's something not right.

 

[rlubikey]

Well, Spitfires, TR7s and Dolomites were still in production when the TSSC was formed, and I was taking my old blue 1981 Spitfire to classic shows in 1988. It would have fallen foul of Colin's pre-1980 rule. I think classic cars are like music and fashion: you get to a certain age then (almost) everything after that is modern rubbish.

Grumpy old git? Me?

Cheers, Richard

[Wagger]

It should like Vintage and Veteran. Veteran as in about pre 1910. My Vitesse is 1960's Vintage. Colin's Z3 is amongst those of. 2000 Vintage. Most of that era can be sorted relatively easily. Forget anything after 2005. Far too complicated.

[Steve P]

Anyone see The Footage Detectives on TPTV yesterday?.

They had an interesting film about British Leyland including the Earls Court motor show where they were launching the TR6. the then Chairman was talking about how they had taken over Standard Triumph and and BMC etc and saying they were 80-90% of all the cars sold in the UK , and were looking forward to the emerging competition from the likes of VW and Datsun. Wonder how that went??.

Steve

 

[Colin Lindsay]

One of my local Facebook pages is called "Classic / Retro Cars For Sale Northern Ireland pre-2000 Only" and at present the number of cars advertised which are 2010 and later outnumber the older ones. We even have brand new cars advertised. At present we have a 2014 Tractor advertised for £26,000. If they can't read and understand what 'pre-2000' means, ands think that no-one is annoyed by their flooding of what should be a specified specialist group, what hope is there for shows?